Anti-poverty charities have a class diversity problem, according to their employees from working-class backgrounds.
Research published last week involving 220 anti-poverty charity employees from working-class backgrounds found almost 94% of respondents felt their organisation had a class diversity problem.
Respondents to the report, Missing Experts by youth leadership charity RECLAIM, felt despite working for a charity that aims to help those on lower incomes that there is a lack of working-class people in the sector.
Many reported that their peers assumed they were from a middle-class background and felt the people they were helping were seen to “exist elsewhere”.
One respondent who works in the sector said: “I feel like an alien working in a policy environment. People making recommendations about people like me, talking about working-class people like we’re an abstract concept. We walk among you guys!”
Almost seven out of 10 respondents from anti-poverty charities said if there were more people from working-class backgrounds in their organisation, language used to describe people on low incomes would change.
A third of respondents also felt fundraising materials would be more empathetic if there were more people from working-class backgrounds working in the anti-poverty sector.
In response to the survey, RECLAIM is asking organisations to sign their pledge that ensures they commit to improving class diversity in the think tank and charity sector.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Save the Children, Green Alliance and Onward are some of the signatories.
‘Big disconnect’
One survey respondent said: “There is often a big disconnect between the communities charities are supporting and the demographics of the organisation. So many clumsy mistakes are made as a result and the lack of diversity impacts the ability to make real systemic change.”
Data was collected through interviews and focus groups with 30 people, survey responses from 277 who have worked in either anti-poverty charities or think tanks, a rapid literature review and a focus group with young working-class people at RECLAIM.
Class is a concept that can be hard to clarify, as it is not just about a person’s income. RECLAIM’s study defines someone as working class who grew up on a low income (economic capital), may have a lack of social capital such as connections to people with well-paid jobs and may find it hard to fit into middle-class spaces (cultural capital).
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